Where Future Eagles dare

It is 9am, and observers enjoy a training match at the popular Oko-Baba pitch in the Ebute Metta area of Lagos. The notorious trash heap which used to attract a swine of pigs has mysteriously disappeared and all that remains is soccer artistry and gusts of wind from vehicles traversing the Ebute-Metta axis of the Third Mainland Bridge.

The football stunts here are not akin to Lionel Messi, but some flashes of precocious talent still offer a consolation for numerous watchers who have not gotten over the woeful performance of the national team after their bout of self-destruction at the World Cup in South Africa.

Demola Towolawi of Amazing Queen Football Club of Idumota is the leading man of today’s training between two amateur clubs, and the former Nepa FC Osogbo and Insurance of Lagos player who is now a coach reeled out some names that had left the popular ground for greater things while explaining the whole system. “We also have a female team, but our boys club is Towotan FC of Idumota,” he said in smattering English. “Some of our players are now in division one clubs like Bayelsa United and Nassarawa. There are also some players in 36 Lions FC in Badagry. We don’t have anybody at national team level but some of our players have gone abroad.”

The development of the area is on the cards and it is said to lie in the hands of a certain councillor, who should play ball with a re-election year around the corner. It is no wonder a white man has been coming for pre-development briefings. But the foreigner has not been the only one paying regular visits as the fellow next to me hails from the Ajegunle-based Maracana Stadium. His purpose is to see his brother while exploring the possibility of nurturing football talent. “We all play ball daily,” says the fellow next to me. “We have talent in this country but all we need is a stop to all the glass house politics and a coach to harness our talent.”

Evans Square is five minutes away and the stretch of land boasts a new look after its development by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) in 2004. The marble plaques are discernible at every entrance alongside warnings against the selling of hemp. Sadly, it has done little to dissuade its consumption as the venue was and still remains a perfect destination for lucid interludes and daily games.

Players synonymous with this stretch of land lying between McCullum and Simpson Streets in Ebute-Metta neighbourhood include Obafemi Martins and Benjamin Chukwuka Nwachi.

Musicians like Bode Davis have also displayed their soccer artistry at a venue which has had a large contingent of potential within its sandy interiors. The love for football is a uniting factor but with money from other areas coming quicker than a club contract, many have been forced to squeeze their dreams into another lifetime, adding veracity to the Biblical saying that “many are chosen but few are called”.

“Martins had always been arrogant since the days he went to Europe,” added a source. We always knew he’d become a star as he exuded lots of skill then.”

Onola pitch around Taiwo Street used to be one of the most popular pitches in Lagos Island. Having birthed greats like Thunder Balogun, Haruna Ilerika, Yisa Sofoluwe and others in its pre-independence fame, the expanse of land is a shadow of its current self as there is zero development hat the famed site. Training has gone on earlier in the day and the current hours belong to a bunch of youths kicking around a ball that is gradually losing breath. There are two monkeys within a cage at the gate next to a lotto operative who diverts questions to a physical trainer within the grounds after intimating on one of their stars Salami, who played for the Nigerian under-17 team last year.

“It is not usually this empty,” says a physical trainer as he pushed weights in a space within the sandy interior. There is a grudge match later and most of the players are at Campos Street getting ready. And like the mini-stadium, which has received a Midas touch of the state government, they are also confident of getting Onala developed. “We are sure of getting this place developed as it is the governor’s area and you know charity begins at home.”

Campos is already brimming with activity as two Lagos-Island wards get set for a grudge tie. The stadium is also wearing a new look, and one can only marvel at the change that has seen the former pre-independence burial morph from a burial site to a mini-stadium. From its tag of Ite Oku (burial ground), a sixties cemetery which had the likes of Samuel Ajayi Crowther buried there and exhumed later, it became a football pitch for grudge matches, and now its latest status of a mini-stadium is replete with an imposing fence, plastic seats and artificial turf.

Alakoro has a good view from Apongbon Bridge and a frequent visitor to the island could not pass without a glance at the piece of land surrounded by water, development and livestock. Things were going smoothly for the wave of development that had seen the popular venue being renovated until there was a dispute over the measurements for the new pitch. I am being regaled by a one-eyed okada rider who has taken it upon himself to give me a personal tour of the grounds while the grounds master is unavailable. There are a few undesirables and livestock within the capacious grounds boasting the Lagos State colours, but it is devoid of the usual footballers and bike learners. There is also a concrete stretch on which the new surface is rolled up in a chained heap to prevent any damage to it.

So who are those who the eagles who have dared this ground, “I ask?

“Obafemi Martins and his brother Ladi used to come here regularly,” adds my impromptu guide with a sneer. We can actually lay claim to having made him.” This seems to be the trend in most pitches already visited as the Wolfsburg player and his elder brother’s names are being dropped with ease. It is possible as the footballer’s itinerant lifestyle makes him a visitor to different pitches as a rookie or experienced hand whose skills are for hire.

This makes him a member of different pitches before the big or match that catapults him to foreign shores and a lifestyle previously dreamt of. There is also the scout who is a frequent visitor to most of these havens to search for talent. But with the Nigerian scenario at work, most feel his presence is just for fun as he knows who he will select at the end of the day. But amidst this sad awareness, the boys still come out to play regularly.